John King

Classically trained in Trumpet from the third grade, John King went from listening to his parents' Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry 45's, to Janice Joplin and Led Zeppelin in grade school, to the Dead Kennedys in High School, and then funk and rap as he began his career as a college DJ in the mid-'80s. There, he was contacted by Mike Simpson and formed The Dust Brothers, hosting the first all-rap radio show in Southern California. He quickly found himself producing and writing music for Delicious Vinyl, the record label of acts like Tone-Loc and Young MC. An unexpected studio visit from the Beastie Boys resulted in one of the most influential rap records of all time: Paul's Boutique. Pioneering the use of digital samples, the music collages on that album mixed rich soundscapes and funky beats from hundreds of different records, giving the album a historic scope that's still being copied. As rap became increasingly corporate and more formulaic, he moved on to acts more suited to his edgy and diverse interests. Collaborating closely with Beck, he helped the folk-hipster create Odelay, a quirky album that quickly found its way onto music critics best of '96 lists. He also collaborated with Beck on the song Deadweight, and the albums Midnight Vultures, and Guero. After Odelay, John moved on to more mainstream projects, like Hanson with their grammy nominated number one single MMM Bop, the Rolling Stones album Bridges to Babylon, and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory . He won a Grammy for album of the year for his work with Santana on Supernatural. In addition to producing Tenacious D's first album, he has worked with the likes of Garbage, Marilyn Manson, Blur, Super Grass, Creeper Lagoon, Biz Markie, and Medeski, Martin and Wood.

Recently, he produced the new record for the Australian band Little Birdy as well as Tenacious D's new album. Currently, he is producing new records for They Might Be Giants and Trainwreck. Also sought after as a remixer, John has remixed Beastie Boys, No Doubt, The Offspring, Chemical Brothers, White Zombie, Butthole Surfers, Ben Harper, U.N.K.L.E., Korn, Tone-Loc, A Tribe Called Quest, and many others. Recently he did remixes for Beck's Guerolito, Herb Alpert Whipped Cream Re-Whipped, and Persephone's Bees. John has found film and TV to be a great outlet for his creativity as well. Most notable is the score for David Fincher's controversial motion picture Fight Club. Recently he composed and recorded the score for the Disney animated series Boyz on da Run, and the upcoming animated series Urbania by renowned graffiti painter Bua. He has also written commercial music for clients like Lexus, The Gap, Timex, Microsoft, Nike, and Volvo. An unexpected result of this was his original composition being used as the opening theme for the Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system software.